No. 4 Alabama picked up its seventh win of the season against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday in a tight 29-22 late-game victory.
After pulling off four straight wins over ranked opponents, most recently against Tennessee, the struggles against a 3-4 South Carolina team were surprising to see.
“I think just the story of the game is resiliency, doesn’t matter how you win,” head coach Kalen DeBoer said. “It ain’t gonna be pretty all the time.”
Alabama had been dominating in almost every way in the weeks prior, but fans of the Crimson Tide saw plenty of changes for the visiting team in Columbia on Saturday afternoon.
The run game
Alabama’s dominant rush attack against the Volunteers last week played a huge role in the success that it saw, but much of that success was nowhere to be found against South Carolina.
Fans saw the emergence of a ground game that consisted of wide receivers taking handoffs, while oftentimes lined up in the back field. Although that worked well against Tennessee, wide receiver Germie Bernard was only able to acquire 23 yards on the ground this week.
Alabama also went back to offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor on the ground. Proctor has been getting in the action a little ever since Alabama faced Georgia, but he was nowhere to be seen except for on the offensive line last week against the Volunteers.
He managed to get a carry this week; however, it went for no gain. That play and many of the run game’s other issues could be attributed to poor blocking from the line.
It seemed as though the Gamecocks were ready for it all, frequently meeting Alabama rushers in the back field and holding Alabama to just two rushing yards in the first half.
The Crimson Tide managed to get its ground game going in the second half to an extent, but it still only finished the game with 72 rushing yards on 23 carries, making that a 3.1 yard average.
To further put it in perspective, the lone touchdown on the ground came from Bernard, who scored from 25 yards out toward the end of the game.
He finished with 23 total yards because his other two carries went for losses. So, subtract that one carry, and Alabama would have finished with 47 rushing yards on 22 carries, which is really a 2.1 yard per carry average, and no rushing touchdowns.
The Crimson Tide will need to ensure that it can get to work on fixing its issues on the ground during this much-needed bye week, or else it could cause real problems soon enough.
Execution
There was a major execution issue throughout the game. The receivers, mainly Ryan Williams and Rico Scott, were dealing with drops during the game, while the offensive line was struggling to block, frequently allowing pressure and ultimately giving up two sacks.
The drops hurt the offense plenty of times and also contributed to the poor completion rate that quarterback Ty Simpson finished with, although he was off-target a few times as well.
Simpson still had a great game, but the passing offense as a whole had some issues that weren’t entirely familiar. Williams has had some issues with drops, but to see others have some drops — and to see Simpson’s occasional inaccuracy — was somewhat surprising.
The offensive line also struggled to provide decent pass or run blocking throughout the game, which resulted in two sacks, something that Tennessee was unable to acquire at all last week.
Fans have seen freshman Michael Carroll get some snaps at right tackle in place of Wilkin Formby after some struggles, and as those struggles continue, it’s looking more and more likely that Carroll may be seeing a fair amount of playing time as the season progresses.
The defense also struggled to bring Gamecocks players down, specifically quarterback LaNorris Sellers, and it allowed South Carolina to gain plenty of extra yardage throughout the game.
It seemed like there were many times during the game in which South Carolina players were just bouncing off of Alabama defenders as they struggled to tackle efficiently.
Overall, there were many small execution errors present in Columbia on Saturday afternoon, and it’s something that will need to be cleaned up before the Crimson Tide hosts LSU in two weeks.
“These moments stack on top of themselves and more times than not, they’ve been positive,” DeBoer said. “I’m excited what it’s going to look like practicing because there’s probably as much juice as I’ve seen in the locker room right now within the course of the last five weeks.”
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